Although I've seen playthroughs of RPG systems before, this one has a unique approach. The first part shows a mix of game narrative and rule descriptions. It's nicely formatted, but I've seen this before. What sets it apart is the second part which explains why the GM made the decisions that were made during play. This behind the scenes look at GMing gives some insight to beginners that rules can't explain. This is worth reading regardless of the RPG system used.

Of all the minimalist OSRish systems I've seen so far, this is a nice blend of simplicity, freedom, and logic. The only problem is that the description leads the reader to think that there's a dark, mysterious, woodland setting to explore; there isn't. Cairn does provide the tools to create such a setting, but it could easily be for any setting.

This product's contents is very different than Mythic and the related Creature and Adventure crafters. The other books provide you with large, imaginative charts that fuel your games. They are very helpful, and save time.

The Location Crafter provides you with the process to make your own. As far as concept and methodology goes, the product is as good as the others, but it stops short! Instead of providing you with pre-made sets for you to use/modify like battlefield, castle, alien base, office building, fairy forest, modern day slum, and such, it just shows you the process. It seems like the whole book should be the last chapter of a much larger product.

I would wait for the full release, and make do with the other excellent products until then.

I'll start with full disclosure. I am a member of the 2nd round of play testers for the Elthos RPG & The Mythos Machine. I have been for years. I am also a player in the author's game world, and I've loved the experience. With the exception of his GMing, and snacks, I haven't been paid for this review.

The Elthos RPG rules book is really a fleshed out background for the web based GM/Player utility that is The Mythos Machine. Although it can stand on its own as a simple fantasy RPG, that is not its primary purpose, or its strength. It's meant to support The Mythos Machine service.

The Mythos Machine is a fully integrated world building tool set. You make the world including its genre, places, races, weapons, armors, skills, powers, monetary units, cultures, campaigns and adventures. It tracks the players' characters, that they create, their stats, their derived stats, and it keeps it all online. It also, if the GM cares to, tracks their experience, and their place on the alignment track. It's deep.

It also has a random encounter generator, based on the creatures you created, and the places that you created. It even tells the GM what they're doing.

It's very deep.

As for the Elthos Rule Book, it's a blend of simplicity, and old world RPG game mechanics. There are just three stats, and one die, but it has traditional things like armor class, levels, and hit points. Personally, when I made a world, I modified the heck out of the rules to suit my taste. Since the core is based on three stats, and the conflict resolution is fairly simple, it wasn't hard to do.

That brings me to my last point. The Mythos Machine isn't fully realized yet because it's supposed to be populated with your worlds. If you want to make stuff for others, for free, and share it, you can do that. If you want to make a world, and sell it through The Mythos Machine, you can do that too.

At the moment, the Elthos Rule Book, and The Mythos Machine, are for people who really enjoy making role-playing worlds. If it takes off, it will also be a way for people who want to shop for a new RPG world. It's definitely worth a look if this is your kind of thing.